


as the world caves in

by howyoubrewing



Series: commander and captain [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, CT-7567 | Rex Needs a Hug, Clone Wars, Order 66, Post-Order 66, different timeline, rework of order 66, rex and ahsoka don't split up after order 66, set on mandalore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:14:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26400973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howyoubrewing/pseuds/howyoubrewing
Summary: “He’s going to kill her and she can’t bring herself to stop him.”Order 66, if Rex and Ahsoka were still on Mandalore & escaped together.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano
Series: commander and captain [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931347
Comments: 3
Kudos: 72





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago (I have 2 chapters ready) and realized it's just sitting on my computer waiting to be read! Basically I imagined if Rex and Ahsoka were fighting on Mandalore when the order went out, and how they make their escape...  
> Enjoy, and as always thanks for reading!

Things on Mandalore were going fine—truthfully, better than Ahsoka predicted, especially fighting Maul. She survived relatively unscathed, and he disappeared for the time being, giving her the opportunity to rejoin the men and help out in some vulnerable places with attacks. The siege was going alright, strategically speaking, and gaining ground in the city was slow going but still _going_ ** _._** They’d get there eventually, she had faith.

The adrenaline rush of jumping out of the transports with her troops, cutting down flying Mandalorians, helping out troopers…she was finally back in the action where she belonged and it felt so good. Her lightsabers slicing (Force, how she had missed her weapons), blood pumping, brain rushing with endorphins as she did was she was born and trained to do. For the first time since leaving the order, she felt at peace again despite the battle raging in the sky.

Ahsoka finishes wrapping a bandage around a minor burn on her arm, sitting on the crumbling sidewalk of the city. The men she’d been patrolling with sit across the road, taking a well-needed break, too tired to even banter with each other. Rex is closer to the frontlines with another group of clones, trying to gain ground at a snaillike pace.The battle has slowed down, if but for a moment, and she allows herself to appreciate the once-glorious streets, a city designed so intricately, a planet laid waste to by war. Once glorious, and once ruled by a beautiful and wise woman who was now dead.

The fighting comes naturally to her—but if she really thinks about it, Ahsoka is sick of war. The truly ugly sides of it—her troops slaughtered, ships shot down, corrupt rulers who keep millions of slaves and torture prisoners. The heaviness that slowly drains a person. She remembers how excited and naive she had been when she’d touched down on Christophsis that day, so many years ago, eager to jump into a war and be a Padawan. She quickly learned war wasn’t fun; nobody really won a war. Everyone lost something—their innocence, sleep at night, a friend, their home. No planet or person remained unscathed.

She thinks of the first serious injury she sustained that filled her with terror at the idea of dying. When Anakin had been comatose after protecting her from that explosion. When she thought Obi-Wan was dead. When she watched Kalifa’s life drain away before her eyes. Each experience that marked her forever, scarred her, chipped away at the facade of the Jedi she had always worshipped.

After this is over, Ahsoka thinks, she just wants to rest for a while. She wants to sit with Anakin and have a drink, to catch up with Master Plo, to sit in the mess hall with the clones and just _laugh._ She’s been running for months, ever since she left, trying to escape her past and this damn war that wouldn’t leave her alone. And she is so tired.

An explosion and burst of artillery snap her out of her escapism—she still has a job to do, and it looks like their break is over. She hoists herself to her feet and rejoins the small squadron from the 332nd that are already on their feet, waiting for her command. She cracks a smile as Anakin’s words ring in her ears— _well, she can go with Rex as his advisor!_ Knowing full well she’d be leading troops independently in a planet-wide war. She had been overcome with gratefulness at that moment, amongst other emotions, because for nearly a year she’d been just about totally on her own and nobody had cared about her at all. And here was her former Master, fighting tooth and nail to give her her old role back and the opportunity to help the way she wanted.

“Alright, boys, let’s go give Rex a hand.” She shouts over another explosion, this time sounding closer. In unison, they salute and shout back _yes sir_ and her heart swells. Her brothers, the best troops in the galaxy, were here watching her back and they would die for her.

They traverse through the streets and back into the heat of the battle. She can see Rex far away, making good progress and his unit looking steady. Ahsoka dodges a shot from an incoming Mandalorian on a jetpack and cuts him down when he gets close enough to her. The soldier crashes to the ground, still immediately.

Not only does she have to fight the ground troops, but they had kriffing _flying_ ones too.

“Keep your eyes up!” Ahsoka yells, narrowly blocking another shot with her lightsaber. The onslaught from the Mandalorians is growing heavier by the minute, it seems.

She’s finally settling into the rhythm of the battlefront when she hears it—a metal sound clinking to the ground, a rapid beeping noise that grows faster. Ahsoka looks around frantically and tries to locate it.

“Get down!” She screams as the ground beneath her feet explodes.

—

Someone is shaking her shoulder. It hurts. Her head pounds, and she vaguely feels something wet on her temple. Is it raining? It was so sunny just minutes ago. How long had it been? Where is she? Ahsoka is so tired…

The shake comes again. “Commander!” The voice is too loud and it hurts. She opens her eyes in annoyance, the face blurry, swimming in her vision as she struggles to justify it. She lets out a groan and tries to sit up, but dizziness swamps her. An arm goes behind her shoulders, helping her into a more upright position.

The clone’s voice is urgent. “Sir, I’m sorry but we must get up now. The enemy troops are advancing on us and we need to get out of here. We can get you help soon after that.”

Ahsoka nods, words not quite forming in her mouth the way she wants them too. All she hears in her brain is a shrill, constant, high-pitched whine instead of normal sound. She touches her temple cautiously and it comes back slick with blood. Her hyper-sensitive hearing assisted by her montrals is virtually non-existent now, and she feels exposed.

The trooper is pulling her up now, slinging her arm over his shoulder and helping her walk forward. Fortunately, if she has any bodily injuries, she hasn’t processed or felt them yet. If it weren’t for the sheer dizziness and the disorientation she feels from temporarily losing hearing on one side, she’d be walking fine.

More bombs are going off—how were they losing ground so quickly? They had been doing so well! Despite the pounding in her head, she is so irritated she wants to jump right back in. She fumbles for one of her lightsabers, quickly deflecting several incoming shots as they move through the street.

After nearly half an hour, her head is beginning to clear and she can feel the clone slowing in exhaustion from nearly carrying her. “I’m fine for now,” she tells him kindly, waving off his glance of concern (she is still so good at reading their expressions even through the helmets) and igniting her other lightsaber. She is weary and her head hurts like bantha fodder but she can stand, and she will be fine. She’s survived worse.

They rejoin another smaller unit, the men flanking her as she pushes on, hoping Rex and his troops are doing alright. Hoping Anakin is okay and that this will all be over soon.

They raid a building and clear out the enemy, gaining more ground, and things are going better. She peers out the second story window and can see Rex at the end of the road, him and the men around him holding their own. They are doing fine.

A sharp, blinding pain shoots through her head, the sound of someone screaming echoing in her mind. The screams are so tormented they bring her to her knees. She senses the dark side, battling with the light.

Anakin.

She can feel his anger through their bond, can practically feel the struggle inside him. She can’t tell if he’s winning or not; she can only pray he will.

_Fight it, Anakin,_ she hisses though their bond. _You can do this. You can still fix the Jedi; you don’t need to destroy it all._

She’s so distracted by his agony that she doesn’t hear the gun behind her being drawn.


	2. Chapter 2

The shot comes out of nowhere, piercing hot through her right shoulder as she stares out the window unknowingly. The force of it spins her, knocking Ahsoka to the ground as a shriek of pain and shock tears its way from her throat. She whirls, expecting to see a Mandalorian that has snuck up on her.

But it’s not. It’s one of her men.

“Trooper!” She shouts as he continues to get closer to her, igniting her lightsaber. “ _Stand down!_ ” What in the Force’s name was he doing? The shock and disbelief quickly melts into sheer terror as he aims another shot at her, getting closer with each step. She bounces back the blaster shots as he corners her against the windowsill, still not even acknowledging her. “What are you _doing?”_ She can hear footsteps on the stairs, but her gut is telling her they aren’t friendly either.

She’s fumbling for her comlink, continuing to deflect shots because she doesn’t want to kill him but he’s getting so close, and comms every higher ranking clone in the 332nd. Her voice is more panicked than she’d like it to sound. “This is Ahsoka Tano, requesting backup for a rogue trooper. Tell your men to stand down, I repeat! Stand down! I am injured!”

From a just a block away, Rex’s blood turns to ice. Something is _so very wrong_. He has to get to her.

With a cry of anguish, Ahsoka cuts the trooper down. Tears spring in her eyes—why had he done that? What was wrong with him? Was this some terrible Sith technology, to turn her men against her? Her gut twists so deeply, this is so _wrong._ She fights back bile as his body hits the floor.

The steps on the stairs reach her, and there’s a half dozen or so of her men, the ones who had been downstairs waiting on her command, all with their guns pointing directly at her. The feeling in her gut is so _horrible,_ and she thinks of the waves of rage she had felt from Anakin just moments earlier. Was this some plan set in motion by the Sith? How had they gotten control of her men?

The wound in her shoulder screams in pain as she tries to dodge the onslaught of blaster fire—but it’s not a few shots, like a clone regularly would, but a constant barrage of them, with the clear intent to kill her. Like one might exterminate a Separatist droid or an animal.

Her head swims. She knows she can’t go on much longer, that more must be coming, that she can’t dodge shots forever. The window behind her is tempting, but in her state she’d probably break an ankle trying to jump and just be more vulnerable.

White hot agony sears her brain, and she hears echoes of familiar screams and voices of other Jedi, planets away, saying the same things she had been minutes before. _Stand down, troopers! What are you doing? I said, stand down!_

She realizes in horror that there are other Jedi in danger. It isn’t just her troops staging a mutiny…could it be the entire clone army?

_Anakin, you have to stop this! Help me!_ She sends one last desperate cry through the bond.

Is this _it?_ She’s going to die at the hands of her own men, alone, her body riddled with blaster fire and left to rot in an abandoned building on a faraway planet. Ahsoka’s going to be murdered by her brothers after finally finding her place back amongst them. Will she see Anakin or Obi-Wan ever again? Will anyone know what really happened, or will it be blamed on an accident? An enemy ambush?

She collapses on the ground, acquiescing to her fate at last, and one clone steps forward to give her the finishing shot while the others watch, not saying or making a sound. Ahsoka closes her eyes, wincing, hoping that death is quick and she won’t feel much.

The shot doesn’t come.

There’s the sounds of a scuffle, and shouting that she doesn’t quite make out because her head is pounding so hard and her mind is screaming at her still, trying to comprehend, and she opens her eyes and Rex is pushing the man out of the way.

_Rex_ , she thinks in horror. Not him too. _Please, not him. Let him be okay. Do not make me kill him._

“I’ll take care of her,” he’s saying gruffly, stepping in front of her, and she can’t quite read his tone.

“We are following our orders, sir,” the man says, and the clones behind him tense and aim again at Ahsoka.

“So am I, soldier,” he snarls, firmer this time and not backing down. “I know my orders, and I am your Commander. She’s a special case, and can be difficult. I know her. It’s personal. I will kill her myself.”

Ahsoka releases a strangled gasp, the horror too much. Rex is one of them too, for whatever reason, and he is going to look her in the face and kill her. The man she’s fought beside since her first day as a Padawan, all those years ago, naive and young and knowing nothing of war. The one who’s saved her life so many times, who always believed in her and trusted her decisions. One of the only people who believed her when she was accused of the bombing. 

The man finally nods, accepting Rex’s request. Rex barely even glances down at her.

Her breaths are shallow as he grabs her roughly by the shoulders, throwing her to her feet and shoving her towards the stairs. She stumbles a few steps at a time, hesitating in the doorway, and he pushes the cold metal of his blaster into her back as the other men watch them. She can hardly see through the blur of tears as they wind their way through alleys and narrow streets, the number of troops in sight slowly dwindling.

So he wants to kill her in complete isolation.

She feels paralyzed, trapped, her brain firing a thousand miles a second as she tries and fails to understand what is happening, why her troops are suddenly murdering her. She can’t kill Rex, she knows her heart won’t ever allow her to do so. She’d never be able to live with herself—even after all the things she’s done in her lifetime, all the people she’d killed—hurting Rex would break her.

They reach a small, abandoned armory that probably was once very well-stocked, now diminished by the Mandalorians and their war. The door hangs half-off its hinges, and he shoves her inside. Rex is securing the building, checking outside for anyone nearby, swinging the door shut as best he can. It’s just the two of them, and she’s shaking uncontrollably, falling to her knees, the tears coming before she can stop them even though she knows how kriffing pathetic it is. The wound in her shoulder sends stabs of pain through her system.

“Rex,” she’s begging desperately, even though she knows he can’t really hear her, won’t listen. “Rex, please don’t do this. Please.” He’s going to kill her and she can’t bring herself to stop him.

She flinches as his blaster moves—here it comes, the blast through her skull that will end her—but instead, to her shock, he sets it on the ground next to him.

“It’s okay. It’s okay, Commander, I’m not going to hurt you,” he says, his voice softer now than it was when he was yelling earlier, and she is so confused. “I promise. You’re safe. I didn’t turn like them, I’m not under the mind control.”

“The…what?” She stutters, still not trusting him, because this could very well be a trick.

Rex’s hands go to his helmet, pulling it off, and Ahsoka wants to cry looking into his sad, hurting eyes. She can tell just by looking at him that he’s being truthful. His voice isn’t hard and robotic like the other men’s; it is gentle as he speaks, trying to calm her down. “They put chips inside us clones. To use for “rogue Jedi”, they said, but it was obvious they could activate it anytime and it could be dangerous. Fives tried to warn us about it. A couple of the men and I removed ours a few months ago.” He taps the side of his head, where she sees a small white scar, cut neatly.

Ahsoka’s voice trembles as she looks up at him. “I thought you were going to kill me.”

His eyes are pained. “Never, Commander. I’m just sorry I didn’t get to you sooner.” He sits next to her and she grips his arm, trying to reassure herself that he’s real, that he is telling the truth, that he isn’t controlled like the others.

“Rex,” she whispers, and she lets herself press into his shoulder and cry. For herself, for Anakin, for the Jedi and the clones who died today. For the uncertainty of the future and the world crumbling around them. She’s never been _this_ close to Rex, not unless you count the times they’d helped carry each other off the battlefield, and she wonders what the commander thinks of this, but he relaxes and rubs her back in comfort, whispering reassurances in Mando’a.

Ahsoka pulls back at last, wiping her eyes, slightly embarrassed at her former captain (no, _commander_ ) seeing her like this. “Sorry, Rexter,” she says, attempting and failing to smile at him.

He shakes his head softly. “Don’t be, commander. You have every right to be upset.” He indicates her shoulder wound. “May I?”

She nods, and his fingers gently probe the wound, peeling the layer of her clothing back. She tries not to hiss in pain as he applies bacta, then finally wraps the shoulder in what little medical cloth strips he has left.

“You’ll need proper medical attention, but that’s obviously not an option right now. That’ll do for now.” He frowns at the blood on her temple, though it’s mostly dried now. “Does you head hurt?”

“We got hit by a grenade earlier and it threw me. I couldn’t hear out of this side for hours. But it’s better than it was.” Ahsoka leans against him, half in pain and partly because she is just so scared of the world around them and the way it is falling apart. His arm goes around her gently, strong and comforting, grounding her in this moment.

After a long pause, he says what they both know to be true. “Commander, we need to get off this planet. The mission and the entire army is compromised. I think this goes bigger than just here, too.”

Ahsoka nods. “I’ve felt it. Other Jedi being killed. And something at the Temple. Anakin—General Skywalker. Something is troubling him. He and General Kenobi are facing something terrible, Rex, something so dark. I’m so worried about him.”

Rex’s face is ashen, and for the first time Ahsoka realizes he’s mourning the loss of his brothers. Surely they would never be the same again after the chip was activated. And here she is, not even thinking about what he’s going through. “I know, little one,” he says quietly. “It’s not good. The Sith are up to something.”

She agrees, silently. It’s frustrating to be worlds away from Coruscant, from Anakin and the rest of the Jedi, and not be able to fully understand the scope of things. “If we can find Bo-Katan, I think she would help us,” she offers, knowing that while the woman is a fierce fighter and a cynic, she would be willing to assist them escape. They’d struck up an unlikely friendship, and Ahsoka liked fighting by her side. “Maybe she could even…maybe we could see if there’s anything we can do about the chips.”

Rex looks at her sideways, sadly, and she can tell he’s given up most of his hopes. “I’m not sure how we’d even go about that. Or that we have time. Jesse and Kix, they took theirs out with me, but I’ve no clue where they are and I can’t contact them without giving us away. There’s thousands of troopers here, Ahsoka, they’re going to find us sooner or later.”

The idea that just about every one of their brothers has turned, that they will stop at nothing to kill her, fills her with unimaginable grief. How could they just abandon them all? “We can’t give up on them,” she urges. “We have to try.”

“You’re the priority here,” he argues, setting his jaw firmly. “If I have to give you cover for you to escape, I will. They’re after you, not me. They don’t know I haven’t turned.”

“I’m not leaving you too!” She snaps, her heart twisting painfully. _Force,_ why was this happening? _What_ was happening? “Rex, look at me.”

He does, finally, his eyes full of anguish, his frame tense as he looks at her with worry, with conflicted emotions for his brothers.

“I am _not_ leaving this planet alone, so you better get used to that,” she repeats. “I can’t lose you too. We go together or not at all.”

He doesn’t look too happy with this arrangement, but he nods in agreement at last and Ahsoka squeezes his hand.

“Promise?” She practically pleads, and she knows she sounds like a child but her world is falling apart around her and Rex is the only solid matter she has. She is used to being abandoned by people she loves, but that doesn’t mean it has to happen again.

It won’t. This time it will be different.

“I promise, kid.”


End file.
